Blowing the whistle on sexual harassers may get easier for Capitol workers this week

In this August 2017 photo, Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, sits at the Capitol in Sacramento. For four years in a row, Melendez has authored a bill to enshrine whistleblower protections into law for those legislative staff members who come forward with allegations of sexual assault and harassment, only to have the bills killed in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Rich PedroncelliAP

In this August 2017 photo, Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, sits at the Capitol in Sacramento. For four years in a row, Melendez has authored a bill to enshrine whistleblower protections into law for those legislative staff members who come forward with allegations of sexual assault and harassment, only to have the bills killed in the Senate Appropriations Committee. Rich PedroncelliAP

Before sexual harassment allegations rattled the Capitol, legislation by Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore, to extend whistleblower protections to workers in the statehouse died in the Senate four years in a row.

Now an amended version of the Legislative Employee Whistleblower Protection Act – with an urgency clause and more than half of the Legislature added on as co-authors – is back in the Senate and expected to come up for a floor vote Thursday.

Assembly Bill 403 makes it illegal to retaliate against a legislative worker who blows the whistle on a lawmaker or another employee with “a good faith allegation” for any action that may violate state law or a legislative code of conduct. The Senate currently operates with a code of conduct, while the Assembly does not.

Anyone who retaliates against a legislative employee faces up to a $10,000 fine and one year in jail, as well as civil liability, under the bill.

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New amendments, including the removal of a provision protecting the identity of the person who lodges the complaint and other witnesses, are expected today. Open government advocates pushed back on language that prohibited the disclosure of investigative files related to allegations. The Assembly Speaker’s Office said lawmakers are working on follow-up legislation to ensure confidentiality for those who come forward.

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